


Gotten Into My Bloodstream

by sparkinside (boomersoonerash)



Series: 25 Days of Ficmas [15]
Category: Hanson (Band), The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: 25 Days of Fic-mas, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Anger, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Death, Explicit Language, F/M, Flashbacks, Homophobic Language, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, NaNoWriMo 2017, No Smut, Shout It Out Era, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 08:03:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13026753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boomersoonerash/pseuds/sparkinside
Summary: Avery and Daryl are both reluctant to admit the names on their wrist mean what they actually do. That they are soulmates.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Day 15 of 25  
> Prompt: Through the smoke

Daryl sat in the passenger side of Merle's truck as they sat on a packed interstate. Finally out of all the mess of the main city.

Away from the monsters that were eating on people, monsters themselves that had once been humans too, and he couldn't help but wonder how long they'd be free of that. How long would it be until those things that swamped downtown Atlanta made it onto the Interstate?

Shaking his head he just looked down at his wrist. His eyes landed on the name that had been branded there since he was ten.

Most children got their soulmate tattoos as a part of their tenth birthday, a surprise they woke up with and that stayed with them for the rest of their life.

If their soulmate died before they met them or even after they met them, then it would fade away. His was still there staring back at him which meant that somehow even in all this mess that had been going on for days that the person he was supposedly destined to be with was out there.

They were still alive and breathing. Fighting the dead freaks.

"You okay there Darylina?" Merle asked mockingly from beside him. Daryl turned to glare at his brother who only smirked back condescendingly. "Oh you were thinking about him weren't you?" he asked as he looked down at the name on Daryl's wrist.

Blushing Daryl looked away from Merle's gaze. "We don't know if it's a him," he defended. "And, of course I wasn't thinking about them. I told you I don't give a shit about soulmates. Whoever this person is they'll be thanking their lucky stars they didn't get to meet me."

"I don't think Avery is a girl's name," Merle retorted before just shaking his head, going silent again. In the silence Daryl couldn't help but let his mind wander.

*****

_"Come on Daryl let me see it," Merle spoke badgering him for the hundredth time that day to see his tattoo. "I want to see what chick you're going to end up with," he said as he proudly flashed his own wrist with the name Teresa on it._

_Daryl scrunched up his nose as he looked down at the name on his skin. Knowing that Merle would give him crap when he saw it._

_Would probably even call him names because the name on his wrist wasn't a typical female name. But Daryl didn't think he was gay._

_He may have been ten but he was sure he'd never found boys attractive. Had even once had a crush on Sandy in first grade. Until he realized that he and Sandy came from different home lives and there was no way Sandy would like him back._

_Not when she had enough money to buy school lunches and sometimes Daryl had to go hungry because his dad and his mom spent it all on alcohol and drugs._

_Not when it became apparent to him that Sandy's parents didn't hit her the way his dad hit him. Though he usually did it when Merle wasn't home._

_He knew Merle would try and kick his ass if he tried, even if Merle himself was awful to Daryl too. But at least Merle never laid a hand on him. Just used his words sometimes to hurt Daryl._

_"You'll make fun of me," Daryl told Merle softly as he did his best to hide his wrist in the sleeve of his shirt._

_Merle laughed loudly, "I'll only laugh at you if you're a fag," he spoke and Daryl felt his cheeks getting hot which made Merle laugh more. His blush probably cluing Merle into the fact that he thought his wrist tattoo was probably a man's name._

_"Are you a fag?" Merle asked as he reached for Daryl's arm quicker than Daryl was used to and he couldn't stop him from pulling his sleeve up as he turned his arm to show off his soulmate's name._

_Merle stayed silent as he examined the name for what felt like hours, but Daryl knew it wasn't actual hours even if it felt like it._

_"You are a fag," Merle spat out as he dropped Daryl's wrist. "Avery sure ain't no female name," he teased him as he bent down to Daryl's level. "Good luck keeping that one from Daddy Darylina," he said and there was a judgemental tone he had never heard from his brother before._

Like the brother who he looked up to, flaws and all, now despised him for something he couldn't control. If Daryl could control this, the name on his wrist wouldn't be Avery.

He'd have Susan or even Sandy or Carol on his wrist. He'd have a name that he knew for sure belonged to a female just to save him from Merle as well as his dad.

*****

Hearing the door slam on the truck Daryl came out of his thoughts realizing that while he was zoned out that Merle must have left the truck and was now back.

"Some people ahead of us are going to a place not far from here," Merle told him as he started up his truck. "I think we should go too," he said and Daryl knew for Merle to say that there had to be a catch.

Merle never actually wanted to be around strangers or follow people blindly. There was something Merle wanted and Daryl could feel it in his bones.

"Figure we'll stay long enough to have them trust us then take half their shit and get out of dodge," Merle continued confirming what Daryl suspected. Merle was going to use these people and of course Daryl would follow along because no matter how awful Merle treated him, Merle was blood and blood came first.

"Maybe you'll even find the man of your dreams there," Merle teased him before hitting him playfully on his arm.

Daryl saw Merle's now empty wrist. The same wrist where the name Teresa had once been.

*****

_"How is she doing?" Daryl asked Merle as they sat in the hospital waiting room. Daryl having just arrived not too long ago, but Merle had been here since last night._

_He had gotten a call that the woman he had been dating for two years had been shot while at the bar where she worked._

_Apparently as Teresa had been closing up, someone had decided to come in and rob the place, shooting her in the process._

_"She's going to die," Merle told him sounding like he had time to come to terms with losing her. "The last time they checked her brain there was no activity and when they check it again if there is none her mom is going to pull the plug. But she's been gone for awhile now," he revealed as he held out his wrist for Daryl to see._

_Daryl seeing that the name Teresa was now gone._

_She was dead and she wasn't coming back. Merle had lost the one person who Daryl was positive had been changing his life and he was now sure Merle would revert back to how he was before Teresa._

_He'd go back to dealing and doing drugs._

*****

Sitting in front of the fire at the quarry that night Daryl looked through the smoke at the girl who was sitting across from him. The girl whose distraught blonde sister had introduced them both.

The blonde being named Jessica but the girl beside her. The brunette was named Avery, a name which made Daryl pause as he jerked his head towards her.

Feeling like he wanted to be sick because this had to be some cruel joke the world was playing on him. There was no way that girl who looked like she wasn't a day over eighteen was his soulmate.

There was no fucking way he'd find his soulmate like this at the end of the goddamn world. But it did make sense when he thought of his life and the way the world liked to kick him.

If only he could take one look at her wrist. See if his name was on it because so far she had a really good poker face. She hadn’t seemed affected when she heard his name.

She didn’t act like he was her soulmate so maybe he wasn't. Maybe this was just chance and the Avery here wasn't his Avery. Maybe the name on her wrist belonged to some man far better.

Someone who wasn't as fucked up or as damaged as he was.

A Bob or a George seemed more likely for her to have on her wrist than Daryl was, at least he hoped that was the case. 

He wasn’t ready to be faced with what would happen if it were his name on her wrist. If the world had deemed them soulmates long before they had even met and if the world had somehow known all along how they would meet.

That it would be when the world went to shit.


	2. Chapter 2

Avery looked down at her wrist as she sat on her brothers’ tour bus after her confrontation with Jessica. Her sister was grieving the loss of her soulmate by sleeping with one of the two brothers who seemed like redneck trash hicks.

Avery believed his name was Merle. The other though, of course she remembered his name. Not just because he happened to get into some story about how all this shit reminded him of a time he saw a Chupacabra when he was a boy. No, it was because she had his name on her wrist since she was ten. 

A name that was still there staring back at her as if to say, see, that person who you had always thought could save you from the hands of your dad each night he snuck into your room may have been no better.

He was probably of the same variety of men that her own dad secretly was.

Though Avery knew making such quick judgements was wrong, it was hard not to from his looks or the way his brother acted, and most of the time family was cut from the same cloth.

Minus her brothers. None of them were like her dad.

But Merle and Daryl could have been and now she almost hated the name on her wrist. She was even afraid to chance a look at Daryl's to see if her name adorned his but she knew in her gut it probably did.

They were soulmates and this was the cruelest prank the world could have ever played on her.

"Ave?" Zoe asked as she sat down beside her sister, bringing Avery out of her thoughts. "You need to get some sleep."

Avery painted on a smile for her sister as she looked up at her, "I will in a second," she spoke but truth be told, after everything today she wasn't sure she could.

She had too many images of lost family members as well as images of the man named Daryl seared into her brain. Images and thoughts that would keep her awake.

*****

_"Do you think soulmates can save you?" Avery asked Zac as they sat out by the pool behind their parent’s house._

_It was two days after her fifteenth birthday, a day which she wanted to forget for a lot of reasons most of them having to do with things her father had made her do the night of her birthday._

_Avery had times now where she always felt even dirtier after every time that he touched her. Every time he whispered things to her. The way he tauntingly ran his fingers over the name on her wrist as if to say no one would replace him. That he always would be there in Avery's life first._

_After all he had been her first even if she hadn't wanted it. Even if she had tried to fight him off._

_Zac looked over at Avery curiously like there was a question he wanted to ask her but didn't. It was how everyone minus their mom seemed to look at her._

_Letting Avery know that somehow almost all of her older siblings had found out what their dad was doing to her. Yet none of them had stepped in to save her. Either out of fear or something._

_Not that she could blame them, wasn’t it fear that kept her silent. Kept her from telling anyone._

_"Kate hasn't saved me," Zac spoke as he looked at her with a shrug. "Therefore no, I don't think they can do that," he said and Avery almost wanted to call him on his bluff._

_She wanted to tell him that wasn't a fair answer since he and Kate weren't true soulmates. Kate had the name Lucy on her wrist and he had Paul._

_They were only together because they didn't believe in having to end up with your soulmate. That and they both claimed to be in love._

_Something Avery didn't doubt even if the names on their wrist were of people of the same sex._

_"Yeah well, I think mine will save me one day," Avery told Zac sounding firm in her words._

_Whoever Daryl was he'd save her. She could feel it in her bones._

*****

"You know he has your name right," Amy said to Avery as they stood at the water cleaning their clothes. A chore Avery knew she didn't have to do. Kate had volunteered to do it but Avery wanted to.

More like needed to. Mainly because it had been three days at the quarry and she and Jessica still weren't talking, and her mind was running away with her when it came to Daryl.

Reminding her of how stupid she had been when she said he'd save her. Hoped for it even.

Because the longer she was near the Dixon brothers it was apparent they were indeed no good rednecks. Merle with his using Jessica during her time of grief and Daryl and his fucking attitude problem.

An attitude problem that meant in three days he had snapped at almost everyone here at the quarry minus Avery. She was doing her best at ignoring him. Didn't want to be near him in hopes that the name on her wrist could stay a secret.

"Who has my name?" Avery asked as she turned to look at Amy trying to play confused. But she was sure she knew who Amy meant.

She meant that the name on Daryl's wrist was hers. Which was something she had suspected.

She was just shocked someone was telling her now so it probably wasn't a secret. Daryl had a habit of wearing shirts with no sleeves.

Most of his attire was tank tops or what had been long sleeve button down shirts with the sleeves cut off. His wrists openly on display for everyone to see.

Avery on the other hand was doing what she had done during the brief time when she was sixteen and she began to self-injure. She was covering up with long sleeves and bracelets that used to belong to her mom.

Amy just looked at her as if she had two heads or like she was crazy which, maybe she was. She was crazy or in denial.

"Daryl," Amy divulged her words going soft as if it were a secret when it wasn't. "Your name is on his wrist and I wonder whose name you have on yours."

Avery bit her lip as as she looked away from Amy, "It's just some random nobody's name," she revealed with a shake of her head. "Not Daryl's name."

Amy again just looked at her like she was crazy. Like she knew deep down that Avery was lying but she didn't say anything. She didn't call Avery out.

Instead they just finished washing the clothes in silence or close to it. Occasionally Amy would mention Jessica and asked if Avery and her had made up yet. Amy said she knew how older sisters could be. Which Avery guessed was the truth.

She did have Andrea and Andrea seemed like a bit of an uptight bitch.

Of course Avery would keep that thought to herself though. Knowing that while Amy may have agreed, siblings usually took up for one another in the end.

Hell, Avery would still take up for Jessica despite their falling out right now.

Once the clothes were finished Avery collected what belonged to her family. Carrying the basket up the hill to take to Kate who she knew would happily hang them up to dry. Knowing Kate was probably going stir crazy with her own thoughts even more so now that she was pregnant.

"Is it true?" Daryl asked almost appearing out of nowhere from behind some tree. His words making Avery jump some as she turned to look at him confused. "My name isn't the one on you wrist?" he questioned letting Avery know he had somehow overheard her and Amy's conversation.

Avery opened her mouth to lie but she just sighed when no lie came. Like she couldn't lie to him no matter how much she wanted to.

"Does it matter?" she asked with a shake of her head. "We're not soulmates regardless of what our wrists may say," she told him before turning away from him and finishing her walk back to the camp.

Knowing full well her words probably proved that she had lied to Amy.

*****

_"You know you can't lie to soulmates," Jessica mused as she sat with Avery in Avery's room. She had just gotten back from a date with Joe and while Avery, ever the stubborn seventeen year old, would love to have told her to go, that she didn't want to hear how perfect it was finding your soulmate especially when hers was still out there somewhere, but she didn't do that._

_She let her sister stay and talk because that's what sisters did. They talked to each other._

_"Oh yeah?" Avery asked as she moved from her bed to sit down next to Jessica._

_Jessica nodded her head, "I tried to lie to Joe about something so minor. I was going to tell him I liked the color shirt he was wearing cause he wanted my opinion but when I opened my mouth nothing would come so I had to tell him the truth."_

_Avery fell silent at that admission. Her mind wondering what she'd do when she did find her soulmate and the time came for her to lie._

_Like make up things so she wouldn't have to tell him that her dad was a sick man who liked to do things to her. Because she knew if anyone knew that they wouldn't want her._

_Not even whoever this Daryl person was. Even if she was still so sure Daryl could save her one day._

*****

Making it back to the tour bus after giving Kate the basket of clothes to hang out to dry, Avery came to a stop when she saw Jessica just standing outside of the bus, knowing in her gut that her sister had come to speak to her.

"Avery," Jessica said when she saw her sister. "I'm sorry for how I treated you the first day here. The things I said," she frowned obviously remembering how she had implied that Avery had willingly been with their dad and yet was also probably glad he was dead.

"You were grieving," Avery told her with a nod of her head knowing she shouldn't be so easy to forgive but Jessica was her sister and she was kind of running low on family members these days. "I forgive you," she said watching as Jessica finally smiled.

She soon leaned in to hug Avery and Avery just hugged her sister back.

"You know Merle isn't so bad," Jessica said as she hugged her sister still. "You should come to our tent for dinner tonight. You may even like Daryl," she continued now speaking in a way which told Avery that she too knew about the soulmate thing. "He's your damn soulmate Avery."

Avery just remained silent wanting to decline the offer but she knew she'd go. Even if she had been rude to Daryl this afternoon.

She'd go because Jessica wanted her to, not because of Daryl or the fact that their wrists said they were soulmates.


	3. Chapter 3

_Daryl glared at Merle as he stood outside their tent. It had been two days since Jessica had made up with her sister and her sister had joined them for dinner. Two days since he had been roped into taking Avery hunting and today seemed to be the day it was going to happen._

_No asking him and no asking her. Merle and Jessica had just decided and it seemed he and Avery were just going to play along whether they wanted to or not._

_"Oh don't look at me like that baby brother," Merle spoke with a damn smirk. "I'm doing you a favor here," he said as if he believed he was. "How else you going to get to know your soulmate?" he asked him as he continued to smirk._

_Daryl wanted to reach over and wipe the smirk off his face._

_"We're not soulmates," Daryl told him rudely as he shook his head. His mind going back to the day he had heard her talking to Amy. She had denied that his name was on her wrist._

_Yet, it hadn't been so easy for her to lie to him. Which of course he knew what that meant. Merle had told him how it was hard to lie to your soulmate but, well, he wanted to remain in denial._

_It was easier to pretend it wasn't him because she deserved better. Seemed like she knew it too or she wouldn't be lying about it._

_Before Merle could reply back though Jessica and Avery walked to their tent and Daryl just settled Avery with a glare. "You ready to go little girl?" he asked her mockingly._

_Watching as she surprisingly just stood there and took it. Looking so unaffected._

_It was enough to let him know that somehow somewhere she had gotten used to taking shit from some piece of shit man._

_"Yeah, I'm ready," Avery said sounding less than enthused."_

_At her words Daryl turned on his heel. Heading towards the woods._

*****

"I swear if one hair on her head is hurt, you're dead," Daryl spat out as he looked at the teenage boy named Miguel.

A boy who Rick was trying to get information from on where Glenn and Avery would have been taken. Both of them had been kidnapped when getting the guns that Rick had left behind.

Daryl had felt off the moment Avery was taken and he knew it wasn't just because she had been taken with him right there and he had been unable to save her. It was for other reasons he was still denying.

Reasons that had to do with soulmates and things like that.

It was enough that Daryl had almost forgotten Merle was gone. That he had chopped his own damn hand off and was just gone out there somewhere.

Now it seemed all his mind and body wanted was to get Avery back. Make sure the damn girl was safe and not harmed.

Miguel looked up at him curiously surprised by his words it seemed, "Why? She mean something to you?" he asked him as his eyes landed on Daryl's wrist reading the name there. "She the bitch on your wrist?" he asked no longer sounding like the scared teen he tried to be with Rick.

Now he sounded just like a fucking punk. A punk that Daryl wanted to kill but he knew he couldn't if he wanted to make sure that they got Avery and Glenn back in one piece.

"It's none of your damn business what she is to me," Daryl countered as he eyed Miguel. "Just know if she's hurt or dead you're going to be dead too," he growled watching as all the color drained from the teen’s face.

Which served him right. He needed to be scared, needed to have his life flash in front of his eyes because Avery probably was scared right now.

Probably had her life flashing in front of her eyes.

But no, he shouldn't even care about Avery. Screw the damn wrist names. She was just some damn girl he had warned he wouldn't save once he knew she was coming on the trip to find his brother.

Yet here he was having to save her. Wanting to save her.

*****

_"You're shit at keeping up," Daryl growled as he turned to face Avery an hour into their hunting expedition. "You think you could maybe grow longer legs or something."_

_Avery glared back at him again just remaining strong in his harshness to her. "You think you can not be an ass for one second?" she snapped back at him her words making him angry._

_But he did his best not to show it. Didn't want her to see that she was getting under his skin. That he'd never had a woman stand up to him like that before._

_"I wouldn't be an ass if you'd just keep up with my pace," Daryl sighed with a shake of his head. "Is that too hard for you to understand?" he asked her as he walked a bit closer to her._

_Almost right up in her face now._

_Rolling her eyes Avery just shoved past Daryl, "Fuck off," she spat as she pushed past him. Daryl just standing there as he watched her walk ahead of him. The damn girl not even paying any attention to where she was going because if she was then she'd see she was about to stumble over a branch._

_Letting out a sigh, Daryl moved reaching her right as she started to fall and as he caught her in his arms it was with enough force that the sleeve on her shirt was pushed up._

_Her wrist was revealed to him and he saw his own name staring back up at him. A confirmation of what he had already known._

_Suspected it when she hadn't been able to lie to him._

_Before he had time to really react to what he had seen though Avery was pulling away from him. Pushing her sleeve down as she remained silent._

_"It means nothing," she finally told him bringing him out of his own head. "It's just a name. There's no way it got it right with us," she said and a part of him wanted to believe her words._

_Would have under any other circumstance but maybe holding her in his arms briefly had messed with his brain. Because he couldn't find the words to agree with her._

_That or his words would be a lie and he couldn't lie to her._

*****

"You know Miguel told me how you threatened him," Avery said as she walked beside Daryl hours later or at least it felt like hours.

May have been since they had to walk back to the quarry thanks to Merle, or someone, again more than likely Merle stealing the van that they had brought to Atlanta.

Daryl raised an eyebrow as he turned to look at Avery, "And?" he asked her not sure what Avery meant by her words. "What's it matter to you?"

Avery shrugged her shoulders as she smiled at him. The first smile the girl had ever given him since they met. "Just found it sweet is all," she told him.

Her words confused Daryl more than he already was. But he didn't have a chance to say anything else. Not when they heard screaming and gunshots coming from the quarry. All of them taking off then, running to go see what had happened. 

If a pissed off Merle had shown up or if it was worse than that. Daryl got a sinking feeling it was worse than that.

Something that was confirmed when they arrived and saw walkers ravaging the camp. A mess of their people were running from them or getting eaten by them.

Daryl took down a few that were soon coming at him. His eyes looking around as he saw Avery pushed on the ground.

She had one of the walkers on top of her and he ran over, holding his crossbow up as he put an arrow through the walker's head.

He saved Avery from death but as he pushed the walker off her, he looked at the dead body beside her, seeing her ten year old sister Zoe and he wondered if maybe Avery wished he hadn't saved her so that she could join her sister in death. Even if she did have remaining siblings left alive.

But the thought of Avery dying was one Daryl didn't like. He didn’t want to lose her even if they were both too stubborn to actually admit what they knew. 

They danced around the topic like pros.

Their wrists were right, and they were destined for each other.


End file.
